Simple iPhone hack makes your life much easier – and you’ve probably ignored it

YOUR iPhone has an amazing search function that lets you instantly track down specific photos.

It means you can find an image in seconds – if you know what you’re looking for.

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The feature uses powerful computer image analysis to work out what’s going on in your photos.

So you can search for specific terms like “lake”, “dog” or “cheese”.

And just as if you were searching on Google Images, you’ll be able to find relevant photos in your own reel.

If you’ve had an iPhone for a while, you likely have thousands – or even tens of thousands – of photos.

So searching through these manually can be an absolute nightmare.

Instead, just try searching for a key term in the app to narrow it down.

Apple has built dedicated machine learning into the Photos app to recognise scenes and objects.

You can even search for specific events, like a concert that you went to.

“Photos for iOS can use the time and location of your photos along with online event listings to find matching photos,” Apple explained.

“It’s also possible to search by location.

So you can enter a place name like London to track photos of your trip to the UK capital.

How to search Photos on your iPhone

First, make sure you’re updated to the latest version of iOS.

To do this, go into Settings > General > Software Update.

Then open the Photos app – it’s like flower petals made from the colours of the rainbow.

Tap the big Search button in the bottom right-hand corner of the app – the one with the magnifying glass logo.

Then at the top, use the search bar to type in something you’re looking for.

You can search for a type of object or scene, a place or time, or even a person’s name (if they’re assigned in your Photos app).

And don’t start to panic that Apple is snooping on your photos.

All of the processing to make this work happens on your iPhone.

So your image data isn’t being sent up to Apple’s cloud servers to be analysed for the search function.

“When you search your photos, all of the face recognition and scene and object detection are done completely on your device,” said Apple.

“Apple harnesses machine learning to enhance your experience – and your privacy.

“We’ve used it to enable image and scene recognition in Photos, and more, without requiring your data to leave your device.”

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